Residential Lottery Averted at Carpenter

Carpenter Community Charter School does not need to hold a lottery for people who live in the neighborhood.

Principal Joseph Martinez is sending out emails this week to residents who live in the area notifying locals that there are enough spaces to accommodate them.

That is due in part to the verification process that the Los Angeles Unified School District allowed the school to do.

In the letter being sent out, Martinez notes: 

Thank you for applying to enroll at Carpenter Community Charter. As of the close of the Application Period, we have space available for all resident applicants received during the Application Period that ended March 22. Applicants must be a resident at the start of the school year to complete the enrollment process.  

Your child’s enrollment is not complete until we conduct a final address verification at the start of school, but your place is reserved pending this final verification.  We’re looking forward to having your family join our school community!

Please notify our office after Spring Break if your child will not be attending Carpenter next year.

Best,

Joe Martinez

That was the letter that Gretchen Goldsmith received. She moved to within walking distance of the school so her twins could go to the school. She needed to know if she can get in, or else she’d apply to private schools for her Kindergartners.

Georgianna Junco Kelman commented on a Patch story:

A kinder lottery for residents has been effectively averted! We were able to weed out 30 families that attempted to apply for next year using false addresses. This brought our numbers below the allotted 168. Great news! We are in the process of removing the existing 120 fraudulently enrolled! The system is working fair and square!

There were 176 new Kindergarten students applying to get into the school and even among the new applicants, 32 addresses have been flagged. There were 168 spots in Kindergarten.

If there are spots at the school, more than 200 other applicants from outside the Studio City district have applied to go to the charter affiliated school. That lottery is scheduled for later in April.